Your Thyroid gland is located at the base of your neck, and like other glands, it produces hormones that keep your body going, regulating things like your metabolism and your heart rate. When someone develops a lump on their thyroid gland, often it is benign (non-cancerous) but occasionally it's malignant (cancerous) and the patient requires treatments for Thyroid Cancer. Fortunately, the prognosis is good for those with Thyroid Cancer.

Symptoms
As mentioned, the most common symptom of Thyroid Cancer is the discovery of a lump at the base of your neck. Other symptoms include pain in that area, difficulty breathing, changes in voice (including horseness), difficulty swallowing and/or swollen lymph nodes. However, these symptoms can be a sign of something else -- an infection, for example -- so people should not panic if they find they have these symptoms.
Diagnosing it
There are several ways to diagnose thyroid cancer, including

• A fine needle biopsy
• Blood tests, which analyze measurements of thyroid stimulating hormone, among other things
  
• performing an ultrasound on the thyroid gland

Types
There are two main types of cells in the thyroid -- follicle cells and parafollicular cells. There are five main types of Thyroid cancer, depending on which cells are affected by cancer:

• Papillary cancer - the most common and treatable type of thyroid cancer
  
• Follicular cancer - this type is more aggressive, and affects mainly older adults
  
• Medullary cancer - this type of cancer develops in the parafollicular cells and has a poor prognosis once metastasized
  
• Anaplastic cancer - a rare form that is difficult to treat
  
• Thyroid lymphoma - this type is also rare, and begins in the immune system

Are you at risk?
According to the Mayo Clinic, the following risk factors are associated with Thyroid Cancer:

• Exposure to radiation
• Family history
• Gender (women are more likely to develop thyroid cancer)
  
• Race (Caucasian-Americans are more likely to develop the disease)

Treatment
Thyroid cancer can be treated in a number of ways. The most common method is surgery, removing the cancerous growth, which must be followed by hormone replacement therapy. After surgery, radio-iodine therapy may be used to kills cancerous cells. Radiation therapy and chemotherapy may also be used against cancerous cells.

The Numbers
There are 20,000 new cases of thyroid cancer each year in the United States
It is most common after age 30
Those with Papillary and Follicular cancers have a 97% survival rate if treated appropriately


For more information
The Mayo Clinic
The National Cancer Institute
Endocrine Web
Thyroid Cancer Survivors Organization